Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Constitutional update
Bulawayo Agenda
September 08, 2010

Matabeleland North

Attendance - The teams are in Bulilima this week and one team was in an area called Sinothi yesterday. There were 64 people at the meeting.

Systems of government - The call for a more devolved state is gaining momentum in this part of the country despite political affiliation.

Electoral systems - The hybrid system appears to lack understanding among members of the constituency and they feel that the facilitators are not explaining enough.

Citizenship - Dual citizenship is also becoming very popular.

Traditional leaders - There are mixed feelings on whether or not parliamentary seats should be reserved for traditional leaders though there is consensus that they should preside over traditional courts.

Matabeleland North

Attendance - The constitutional outreach team, which has been collecting views from Tsholotsho for this past week, has only managed to listen to half of the population, reports have revealed. Sources say that debate has ensued with some dignitaries in the process saying that Tsholotsho has been completed while some raise alarm on those areas that have been left out. Reports say that meetings have been disastrous as programmes have been changed almost 5 times. It is also said that advance teams are conflicting and this has badly impacted on the dissemination of information of venues and times.

Independent Commissions - Noteworthy, the people of Tsholotsho demanding for an independent justice, truth and reconciliation commission which they feel will address their concerns over the Gukurahundi massacres.

Systems of government - Most people voted for the decentralisation of power as they felt that it could also address their alienation.

War veterans - The participants in most of the meetings unanimously agreed that the new constitution should not recognise the importance of war veterans. The participants argued that war veterans in Zimbabwe had been compensated enough and there is need for the war veteran's pension fund to come to an end. However, some said that it is the state's duty to look out for those war vets who have not come forward and compensate them.

Public Finance - People in Mzaza, Tsholotsho Centre and Pumula said that village taxes must benefit local people

Midlands

Attendance - The Midlands teams were in Gokwe urban this week, a multi-cultural society with almost an equal number of people speaking both Ndebele and Shona. There were 33 people at a meeting yesterday.

Welfare of the team - The issue of accommodation is now almost normal with everyone having a place to stay.

Systems of government - The people are still very fixated with the unitary system as they feel it is the best.

Women and gender issues - People are fired up with the 50-50 movement in all tenets of leadership in the country.

Traditional leaders - There were mixed feelings on the issue of traditional leaders with some participants arguing that they should have seats reserved for them in parliament and that they should also be the custodians of land while others did not agree with that arguing that they need to partake only in their traditional role. There are some people who also feel that witchcraft should be duly recognised

Land - People here are hostile to the idea of the land audit saying that the land issue is reversible and that all land should belong to the state by way of 99-year leases.

Visit the Bulawayo Agenda fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP